Storm's & Starr's Holistic Vet Visit:Update Starr's 2nd Holistic Visit 8-23-07
Hi, today was finally the day for Storm and Starr to go see a holistic vet. She works in 4 different locations and today she was working out of a house which wasn't too far away from me. She's a very nice lady and also has 6 cats of her own.:)
She told me to put the carriers on the floor and to unzip them so that the cats would be free to roam around. Storm eventually got out and was sniffing around and meowing. Starr just stayed in his carrier and was scared. Starr had also had a peeing accident on the way over.:( Luckily I always put the puppy training pads on the bottom of the carriers.
We talked about Storm first and he was there for his aggressive behavior. She told me that usually uneutered males will try fighting for alpha status when they are 2-3 years old and neutered males when they are 5-7 years old. Sunny will be 7 this month and he's the one who's been trying to take Storm's alpha status away from him.
She felt Storm and noticed that he felt very tense which can be caused by a lot of stress. She gave me some Calm Spirit Tea Pills to give him 2 times a day. I should hopefully notice an improvement in about 2 weeks or so. They're about the size of a pea and I can put them in pill pockets which Storm loves. If they work then I can buy a much larger bottle so it'll be less expensive. This bottle of 200 pills cost me $15 plus tax. He won't become immune to them either so this is a big plus. She wants to see him in 1 month. Depending on how he doing, she may also give him an accupunture treatment to help relieve his stress.
She also said that I need to pick which cat that I want to become the alpha cat. Then I need to always greet them first, pet them first, feed them first, and spend some one on one time with them first. I also need to spend some one on one time with all of my cats every day. I want Storm to continue to be the alpha cat since he's my first cat and the oldest. Right now I have to feed Starr first since I put him back in my bedroom and then I feed Storm next out in the main room. I'll see how all of this goes.
Then we talked about Starr and how he's been sick his whole life. I took him out and she listened to his heart, took his pulse, and felt his tummy area. She said that his tummy area felt pretty good so the pred is helping to keep his inflammation down. Next she put some dry accupunture needles in him and then put him back in his carrier. She had already removed his pee pad and put in a clean towel. We talked a lot more and later Starr was so relaxed and calm that he rolled over and started acting goofy like he does with me at home.:) He even started purring and making biscuits. I've never seen him so relaxed in front of a stranger or in a strange place before.:) The accupunture needles are to help reduce inflammation of his intestional system and to help relieve stress.
She wants to see Starr in 2 weeks and he'll probably receive another accupunture treatment. He's also on 3 types of herbal supplements. One is called GI Encap and it's 60 pills which can be pulled open and the powder can be mixed with water or food and it's $15plus tax. The next one is Primal Defense Powder and this can also be mixed with water or food and it's 81 grams and cost $55plus tax. It's a probiotic formula. These two are very important for me to give him one pill and one scoop daily. I can give it to him all at once or split the dose up over the day.
The third one is called Feline Basic Nutrients and it's basically vitamins. It's 60 pills for $15 plus tax and I give him 1 a day. I can also pull the pill apart and mix the powder in water or food. It's not as important as the first 2 so if he won't take it then I can start giving it to him later on. I should hopefully notice an improvement in 7-10 days. I'll still continue giving him the pred but will later be weaning him off of this. I'll also stop the pepcid ac. She said that later on he'll only need the Primal Defense Powder daily and then I should be able to give it to him less often and hopefully taper him off of it completely.:)
Another thing is that Starr needs a grain free diet. Right now he's on one which is Innova Evo and she said I could keep him on this and he should improve again with these extra supplements. I can also look into other grain free dry and wet foods and raw diet powders and foods as well. She feeds her cat's raw diets but some of them don't like certain ones.
I can also start feeding Storm these diets too.:) She said that the grain free diets are great for helping to prevent the formation of crystals. He was on Innova before and developed crystals but he was on the regular canned and lite dry formula which isn't grain free. I told her that Storm seems to be allergic to fish and will become itchy and lose the fur on his ears and this is why I'm scared to feed him Innova Evo. She said that we can address this later if this happens to him again. He may have some sort of nutritional imbalance.
I'm sorry for rambling on so much but I had such a great experience today that I wanted to share this with you. I'll continue to keep you updated about both Starr and Storm. My curent vet was right when she said that this doctor is worth the wait. Thanks for reading this.:)
Starr's 2nd Holistic Vet Visit
Hi, I thought I'd update you about Starr. He went to the holistic vet again today and he was much calmer towards her. She gave him another accupunture treatment and when she felt his tummy area she could tell that he has already improved.:) He's been doing very well.:)
I asked her when we could start weaning him off of the pred. She wants to wait until he's been on the supplements for at least 60 days to make sure that his system is back on track. Then we'll do it very slowly. She said if he had been on the pred for a long time then it would take even longer to wean him off of it. She's been working with a cat that was on pred for about 6 years and it's taken about 1 year to get him down to a very small dose of pred which he'll eventually be weaned off of.
I asked her if I had taken Starr to her when I first started noticing his diarrhea problem if she would have treated him differently. She said that he would have probably only had to be on 2 of his 3 supplements and that he probably wouldn't have needed his GI Encap supplement. Back then it never even occurred to me to take him to a holistic vet. Starr goes back in 3 weeks and Storm goes back for his 2nd visit on Sept. 6th. Storm's been calmer lately but he still has stormy moments. She said that in time these should go away.
